Washington becomes the 10th player for the Pack to be lost for the season. Per this list compiled prior to the BC game, TE Mario Carter (knee), LB Ryan Cheek (hip), OL Denzelle Good (shoulder), LB Nate Irving (leg), FB Colby Jackson (knee), QB Everett Proctor (shoulder) and S Javon Walker (knee) and now Washington are all lost for the season.

This is now the third year in a row of the O'Brien tenure. It's also the third year in a row where State's ranks have been thinned abnormally so due to injury. It's past time, I think, to start viewing this no longer as an aberration but a trend. Something is causing these season-ending injuries to occur at a faster-than-normal rate, year after year. It looks like something we can expect to continue from here on out under O'Brien.

I hate to speculate, but the only real theory I have centers around the strength and conditioning program. It seems like the only variable directly tired to the health of the team, and if you recall, O'Brien brought S&C coach Todd Rice with him from Boston College. But even if that theory is correct, the question that follows is: Ok, now what? What can you do?

You can bring in a new S&C department, I guess. Hire a new coach with a more traditional focus on strength over flexibility. Would that solve the issue? There's no guarantee. If you hire a new guy, let him go to work and the injuries continue, well, then what?

So we're left with nothing logical left to do to address the issue except hope and pray that this trend--no longer and aberration--ceases at some point sooner rather than later. In the meantime, get well James, Rashad, Jeff, Mario, Ryan, Denzelle, Nate, Colby, Everett and Javon.

I hope you and I are wrong, as well, but I just don't see it happening. If we can make Thad Lewis look like a long-lost Manning Brother, we'll make Christian Ponder look like Chris Weinke, Charlie Ward and Johnny Unitas all rolled into one.